Method of automatically milking and feeding animals, as well as an implement and a feeding stall suitable for same

The invention relates to a method as described in the preamble of claim 1 . The invention further relates to an implement which is suitable for performing the method. The invention also relates to a feeding stall which is adapted for being used in the method.

Such a method is known. When, while applying such a method, an animal wishes to visit the milking parlour, it is identified and, with the aid of a time-dependent individual milking parameter for the animal, there is decided on the basis of an admittance criterion (for admitting the animal to the milking parlour) and/or a milking criterion (for connecting the teat cups of the milking robot to the animal's udder) whether or not the animal should be milked. When the milking parameter does not meet the criterion, the animal is either not admitted to the milking parlour or is removed therefrom.

The milking parlour comprises a feeding station in which e.g. concentrate is supplied to an animal during milking. The feeding station serves primarily as a lure means to stimulate the animals to present themselves sufficiently often for being milked. The further feeding station in the separate feeding stall serves to supply additional feed/concentrate and/or silage to animals which do not eat enough feed/concentrate and/or silage during milking in the milking parlour.

The known method has the disadvantage that animals sometimes eat so much concentrate in the further feeding station that the perspective of being supplied with concentrate at the milking robot is no longer attractive enough to them for being lured sufficiently often to the milking parlour. As a result thereof it is not possible to milk these animals sufficiently often. Implementing in an analogous manner an admittance criterion at the feeding station by means of an individual feeding parameter for each animal cannot solve this problem, because this measure does not take into account the animals' visits to the milking parlour with the integrated feeding station.

The invention aims at providing an improved method. According to the invention this is achieved by means of the measures mentioned in the characterizing part of claim 1 .

The invention is based on the insight that by coupling an admittance criterion for the feeding stall to the existing admittance criterion for the milking parlour it can be achieved that the animals, whilst visiting the milking robot sufficiently often, are also enabled to eat enough feed/concentrate. This can be effected e.g. in a simple manner by ensuring that an animal eligible to be milked is not fed in the feeding stall but is only admitted to the feeding stall after having been milked.

Accordingly, at each visit of an animal, e.g. a cow, to the separate feeding stall, the animal is identified and the current value of the individual milking parameter for the animal is determined. On the basis of said current value there is decided whether or not the animal will be fed. If the current value of the (time-dependent) individual milking parameter is within a first range (or interval), the relevant animal, when visiting the milking parlour, is milked and fed during milking, and, if the current value of the time-dependent individual milking parameter is within a second range, the relevant animal is fed when visiting the feeding stall. The first and second range are chosen in such a manner that they do not overlap one another. Consequently, an animal eligible to be milked at a given moment is not fed in the separate feeding stall at that moment, and an animal eligible to be fed in the separate feeding stall at a given moment is not milked at that moment. Only after the animal has been milked (while the time-dependent individual milking parameter discontinuously switches from one range to the other), it is admitted to the separate feeding stall.

The first and second range are preferably chosen in such a manner that they are not directly adjacent one to another. As a result thereof it is achieved that, if the milking parameter is within a specific (intermediate) interval, the animal is neither milked nor fed in the separate feeding stall. In a later stage it is possible to milk the animal in the milking parlour and to feed it during milking. In this manner there is guaranteed a sufficiently high visit frequency of the animal to the milking parlour.

As a (time-dependent) individual milking parameter for an animal may be chosen e.g. the number of milkings effected in the milking parlour since the last milking of the relevant animal. It is also possible to choose the period of time elapsed since the last milking of the relevant animal, or the current estimated milk yield of the relevant animal. As a first range may be used the values above a specific adjustable threshold value and as a second range the values below an adjustable percentage of the adjustable threshold value. As an adjustable percentage 80 may preferably be used.

After a milking of the relevant animal the individual milking parameter has the value zero and then increases in the course of time. In this second range or interval, which is determined according to the invention by the milking behaviour of the animal and not by its eating behaviour, the animal may be fed when visiting the separate feeding stall. When after some time the milking parameter has reached e.g. 80% of the adjustable threshold value, the second interval ends and consequently the animal is no longer allowed to eat in the separate feeding stall. In this intermediate interval the animal is not yet allowed to be milked in the milking parlour. When the milking parameter has increased further and later on reaches the adjustable threshold value, the first range or interval begins and the animal, when visiting the milking parlour, is allowed to be milked and be fed during milking. At the next milking the milking parameter is reset at zero, and the cycle recommences.

When an animal visits the milking parlour while the current individual milking parameter is within the first range, the animal will be admitted, unless, of course, the milking robot is already occupied by another animal or is just in a cleaning or maintenance stage. Then there is tried to connect the teat cups of the milking robot to the animal's udder and to milk the animal. During milking the animal can eat concentrate by means of the integrated feeding station. After the animal has been milked or after a specific number of unsuccessful attempts to connect the milking robot to the animal's udder has been made, the animal is chased away from the milking parlour in a manner known per se.

After having been milked the animal, if still needing additional concentrate, is allowed to eat same in the separate feeding stall. This is possible for the animal until the moment when it is (almost) again eligible to be milked. Consequently, according to the invention, the additional feeding of each animal is controlled depending on the milking behaviour of the relevant animal: the individual feeding criterion is related to the individual milking criterion for the relevant animal.

The method can be implemented in a customary manner with the aid of animal identification means known per se and a computer connected thereto.